1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an enclosed ice tray and ice cubes formed therein and, more particularly, to a non-reusable enclosed ice tray in which individual ice receptacles or cavities for forming ice cubes are filled with a desired liquid when the ice cavities are enclosed. Therefore, a filled cavity must be broken to reach its contents. Accordingly, this structure provides that the cavity can not be reused thereby assuring that the contents of the cavity can not be contaminated or filled by another with an undesired liquid. Further, the ice cubes formed in the tray have an embossment or indicia which both identifies the ice cube and increases the rapidity with which the ice cube cools a fluid in which the ice cube is placed.
In the present environment in which one is concerned of the contaminants found in water supplies, many people desire to drink fluid from a filtered or controlled source, such as "pure" spring water. Further, it is believed that many liquids, such as liquor, is enhanced by mixing that liquid only with "pure" spring water instead of tap water. Accordingly, the ice cubes used in such drinks should also be made of "pure" spring water.
Unfortunately, to assure that the ice cubes will be made only of "pure" spring water it is necessary that the manufacture have some way of assuring, from the time the ice or liquid that forms the ice cube leaves its facility to the time it reaches the ultimate customer, that the less costly or undesired tap water will not be included.
Thus, there is a need to provide an ice forming tray which permits the manufacturer or producer to seal the tray with the desired liquid, such as "pure" spring water, at the time the manufacturer fills the tray so that the ice cubes formed therein cannot be contaminated, and to construct the tray so that once an ice cube is removed from a cavity of the tray that cavity cannot be reused while the remainder of the tray remains intact. It is also desired that the formed ice cube itself have some indicia or way to identify that it is water from a certain desired source.
2. Description of The Prior Art
It is known in the art to provide an ice tray in which the receptacles for forming the ice cubes are enclosed. Specifically, there is known many types of ice trays which include a cover or lid to enclose the ice forming receptacles, however such covers can be readily removed to permit access to the receptacle portion of the tray so that a formed cube can be removed and the receptacle can be readily refilled. Some such trays include those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,432,529 to McMillan, which issued on Feb. 21, 1984; 3,414,229 to Norberg, which issued on Dec. 3, 1968; 3,374,982 to Sallade, which issued on Mar. 26, 1968; 3,019,617 to Malthaner, et al, which issued on Feb. 6, 1962; 2,804,755 to Ansel, which issued on Sept. 3, 1957; 2,769,316 to Candor, which issued on Nov. 6, 1956; 2,629,987 to Chase, which issued on Mar. 3, 1953; 2,613,512 to Gaugler, which issued on Oct. 14, 1952; 2,503,306 to Storer, which issued on Apr. 11, 1950; 2,069,195 to Chilton, which issued on Feb. 2, 1937; 2,011,849 to Chilton, which issued on Aug. 20, 1935; 2,011,289 to Klyce, Jr., which issued on Aug. 13, 1935; Re.19,322 to Tanger, which issued on Sept. 18, 1934; 1,896,849 to Newman, which issued on Feb. 7, 1933; and the commercial ice tray product sold by Cooly International, Inc., and the commercial ice tray product called Kwik Kubes sold by Hyman Products Inc. of St. Louis, Mo.. Both of these commercial products are ice cube bottles having a removable cap and having a side of the ice cube bottle having a plurality of semi-circular cavities for forming ice cubes.
Some such trays include an upper portion for forming the individual ice cubes, a lower portion adapted to receive the formed ice cubes, and a divider to separate the upper portion from the lower portion of the tray. One such tray is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,101 to Nigro, which issued on June 2, 1964.
Other enclosed structures or devices for forming individual ice cubes include a bag or other resilent structure separated into individual compartments. Some such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. Re.31,890 to Vangedal-Nielsen, which issued on May 21, 1985; 3,306,567 to Frei, Sr., which issued on Feb. 28, 1967; 2,966,041 to Zearfoss, Jr., et al, which issued on Dec. 27, 1960; and 2,964,920 to Staebler, which issued on Dec. 20, 1960. The Vangedal-Nielsen patent permits the ice cube to form a circular shape instead of the conventional square shape cube. Other such ice trays having covers or lids and which permit the cubes to form a shape other than a square or rectangle shape include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,417,716 to Pa., et al, which issued on Nov. 29, 1983 and 2,049,902 to Fischer, which issued on Aug. 4, 1936, and a commercial product sold by Hello Productions, Inc. of Elk Grove Village, Ill. under the mark Ice Shapers. The Hello commercial product consists of a two piece tray. The base of the tray has a plurality of protuberances which form a half of an animal shape, while the cover or top of the ice tray also has a plurality of protuberances which form the other half of the same animal shape. When the top is placed over the base and liquid is placed in the protuberance, the animal shaped is formed into ice. This ice tray provides for the repeated formation of ice cubes in these animal shapes.
All of the above provide that the tray can be reused so as to form new ice cubes after the first ice cubes have been formed therein and removed. Accordingly, it is possible for one to fill the tray at any time with any type of liquid. Therefore, these ice trays do not provide any way to assure that only the liquid desired by the manufacturer is used in the formed ice cube.
Further, heretofore, no ice tray provided that the formed ice cube have an embossment or other indicia. The only suggestion of forming ice with embossments is U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,324 to Walter, which issued on Apr. 3, 1979. This patent is directed to a mold for making shotgun targets out of ice. In this patent, it is simply provided that the ice or target have a convex depression.
Thus, heretofore ice trays have not provided individual receptacles or cavities which can only be filled once, and by the manufacturer, thereby assuring that only desired ice cubes can be formed therein. Further, all conventional ice trays also fail to provide for an embossment or other identification in the ice cube itself.